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Cesspool Warning Signs

House Doctor | Gary Dymski

September 13, 2001

THERE'S EVERY reason to be alarmed about the recent death of a Huntington Station man whose backyard cesspool collapsed, burying him under yards of dirt and concrete blocks. They are freak incidents, but cesspool tragedies are usually preventable.

Even so, Dan Friedman, a Poughkeepsie home inspector and self-educated expert on septic systems, can recall dozens of similar incidents in his 30 years in the construction and home inspection industry.

These accidents are one reason for Friedman's All Septic System Information Web site (www.inspect-ny.com/sept book.htm). The site contains links to reference materials, system design and construction, associations and consultants, as well as state and federal agencies. Its purpose is to educate homeowners about an important component of a home's plumbing system - because, as Friedman says, what you don't know about your septic system can kill you. And does he have stories about what people don't know.

But perhaps the story that disturbs Friedman the most is the one about a woman who called him to complain after he had inspected her rural property. "She called to express her fury that I had warned her tenants - who had two small children - about the possible collapse of an old steel tank," Friedman says. "I was amazed; these were her grandchildren. She was more upset that I had called for a septic company to open and inspect the tank than the danger that those children might fall in."

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There's no reason for such tragedies if homeowners take the time to learn the basics about their septic system - where it is and how to maintain it.

Long Island residential systems dispose of homes' liquid waste by dispersing it through the soil via cesspools or septic tanks. On Long Island, there is a fairly even split between old-fashioned "block pools" and watertight septic tanks, say Royal Reynolds, an associate public health engineer with the Suffolk County Health Department. The older systems generally catch solid, liquid and gas waste in a simple ring cesspool open to the earth at the bottom. A second pool may act as a "seepage pit" into which liquids can drain off. These cesspools are usually in homes built prior to 1973, when health officials started requiring septic tank systems in new construction.

The older pools may have been built of cinder blocks, stacking cesspool blocks or even steel tanks. In some cases, they could have a cover made out of plywood, buried beneath a few inches of soil - accidents in waiting.

In newer septic systems, built of precast concrete reinforced with steel bars, waste is stored in a round, watertight tank (usually 12 feet deep and 8 feet in circumference), where it settles into solid, liquid and gas.

Natural bacteria eat away at the solid, and the liquid usually empties into a second "leaching pool" tank. In areas where groundwater is closer to ground level, the septic tank can empty into two or more such pools.

Both types of systems may need periodic pumping out. Determining the location of a home's septic system and developing a regular maintenance plan - regular pumping and inspection - are two safety measures homeowners can take, Friedman says. "The problem is, most people wait until the system fails, when it backs up, to do anything about it."

But there may be warning signs. Homeowners should look for indentations in the ground or the odor of sewer gas that might be coming from rotting covers and piping. These could signal that a septic system is failing or could point to an improperly abandoned cesspool or tank on the property, he says.

Pumping out older "block" pools can be dangerous because it can cause a collapse. Reynolds advises against pumping out block pools. "With a block pool, if you have to pump it, it's time to replace it," he says. Friedman warns that owners of older homes connected to a sewer line also should be concerned. "There's a chance that at one time these homes did have a cesspool," Friedman says. "The question these homeowners should ask is if the cesspool was abandoned properly." Pumping out and then filling in a cesspool that is no longer in use with sand and soil so it doesn't collapse is one way to properly abandon it, Reynolds says. "You should make sure you take off the slab [on which the smaller cover rests] so that you can completely compact the sand," before recapping and covering the old pool site with soil, he adds.

A capped waste line in a crawl space or basement is a sign an older home could have been connected to a cesspool. Homeowners could examine an old survey that might show cesspool location or look for a cane-shaped vent pipe coming out of the ground. In most installations, the cesspool would be located 15 feet from the pipe.